I’m trying to understand the differences between red rubber grease, dielectric grease and silicone grease.
When I Google dielectric grease, a lot of products come up that are advertised as dielectric grease are also advertised as a silicone paste. Are these two things the same thing? Other dielectric greases I find on Amazon are also labeled as “silicone compound”.
This for example is a very popular dielectric grease. One of the properties of dielectric grease is that it does not conduct electricity and can be used on electrical conductors to prevent them from corroding together. However if dielectric grease is the same thing as silicone paste, then wouldn’t that make it conductive because silicone is a semiconductor and is not an insulator?
I did find this chart. But it’s confusing to me if
Dielectric Grease = Silicone Paste
If I’m trying to lubricate rubber, to prevent it from drying out, would red rubber grease or silicone grease be better for this? Looking at the descriptions I find online for red rubber grease
It sounds very similar to silicone grease. Red rubber grease lubricates rubber and preserves it. Not exactly sure when I would use red rubber grease vs silicone grease
Silicon is a semi-conductor, silicone is a lubricant. Silicone is used in many products like RTV which hardens to a solid rubber like material and dielectric grease.
Man I am DYING for a tube of silicone grease, dielectric or otherwise.
Particularly a tube of something called “GM 10”, which I rubbed into all of the door and trunk rubber lining last summer, transforming the under-soundproofed cabin of my Honda Accord into a relative rolling LIBRARY.
All the chain parts stores now carry, even my beloved NAPA, is a big can of some pussy silicone spray, which evaporates immediately upon application, to cloth or said rubber weatherstrip surface.
If I have to get the real stuff online, I guess I will, begrudgingly. Any pointers in the right direction?
There has to be a curing agent to make silicones cure. If the catalyst or curing agent is not present, it won’t cure.
Silicone is a silicon-oxygen backbone with a couple carbon/hydrogen ions attached to the backbone. The basic ions are CH3 but can be changed to provide different properties. They are normally dielectric unless altered to provide electrical conductivity. Red rubber grease can be used up to about 200C and silicones can be used at temperatures higher than that typically. While red rubber grease is inert to most things automotive, it is dissolved by gasoline. I doubt that gasoline would have an adverse effect on silicone grease.
Also, ‘dielectric’ just means it doesn’t conduct electricity, so I guess there could be dielectric greases made from other than silicone grease, although it seems most all now are.
Oh I know. Thanks. I just don’t understand this full scale discontinuance of products that make sense, at least by the car mfgs. Maybe I’ll see if a nearby dealership parts dept. still has a GM10 equivalent for sale by the tube.
Because big retailers use sophisticated inventory and sales analysis to figure out what products move the fastest and bring in the best profits. If a product doesn’t score well, even if it has a loyal fan base, it’s gone from the store shelves. Online sales are different because they work from central warehouses in cheap locations so they have low cost room to hold products and and ways to sell to someone anywhere in the country.
The I must have some way out there preferences, with regards to what alI purchase, consume, use, wear, eat, etc. Because most of what I like has been discontinued!
You don’t have to buy stuff from them. If they don’t have what you want, then that’s the end of that. Don’t waste your time with them. You have choices and they have forced you to go online.
Hey thanks. Sounds like most silicone grease are dialectic by nature. However it’s best to get a product that is labeled as dielectric grease, because some silicone greases can have some sort of chemical added to them that would result in them not being dielectric.
So silicone grease is stable at higher temperatures than red rubber grease. Sounds logical. Not sure if this question has an answer, but if temperature is not a concern, is red rubber grease or silicone grease better at lubricating rubber, to prevent it from drying out and cracking?
Like the tire gauge(brand: Longacre) in my avatar: You’d be hard pressed to find a gauge of that build quality and accuracy by walking into a physical store, sadly. There’s just no market for it amongst the m’asses.
If you’re looking for the grease to provide some extra sealing properties by virtue of the thickness it can be applied, then that is the best choice. However, I won’t use grease on door seals just because of the potential for inadvertently rubbing clothes on it getting in/out and staining them with the grease. I use a silicone spray for these gaskets to preserve the rubber and make them not stick to the door frame or metal opposite the seal, especially in cold temps. The spray is much thinner application and so far less chance of getting it on something else- hands, clothes etc. The sprays are available most everywhere around here. Even WD40 is good for this purpose…
I use grease on o-ring seals, spark plug boots and so on. As noted above, pool stores carry silicone grease for the O-rings used in the plumbing connections. But it’s smaller tubes and much more expensive than bulk on-line.
I wouldn’t be ‘dyng’ for it if I didn’t already have a good experience with it! I believe I mentioned I had used up my tube of GM10 lube.
No issues with it getting on clothes, or doors sticking in cold, or any of that. Fact is I wouldn’t recommend anything but. Sissy spray on silicone vaporizes on contact. A big waste of money if you ask me.
There are different kinds of silicone grease, used for different purposes. I recently replaced my truck’s spark plug wires, and the new set came with a packet of silicone grease, used both to aid in making each wire the proper length for a custom-fit set, and to lube the boot so it slides easily over the spark plug. As far as “dielectric”, that means the material is an insulator, contains no unbound charges. Copper contains unbound electrons, can move from atom to atom without much effort, which makes copper a good conductor. A dielectric material has no unbound electrons. The electrons are more or less stuck to their atom. However if the voltage is high enough, that force can pull even a bound electron off its atom. Air is a dielectric, but will conduct electricity if the voltage is high enough, lightening for example. Air isn’t a good dielectric. With a “good” dielectric, the electrons are really super- stuck to the atom, more than just a typical insulating material, so it takes a really high voltage to pull them off the atom. Silicone is a “good” dielectric, electrons are really stuck fast to the atoms.
